Kevin Allison had a good, long moment of fame as a member of "The State," the beloved mid-'90s MTV sketch comedy show that also featured such comedy luminaries as Michael Ian Black and Robert Ben Garant. But it wasn't until 2009 that Allison found his true calling: Being himself onstage, rather than a character. Now he shepherds storytellers of all stripes in his "Risk!" live show and popular podcast, where people share entertaining but totally nonfictional stories from their lives with such show titles and themes as "Blown Away," "Messy" and "Young Rebels." Podcast guests have ranged from new "Daily Show" host Trevor Noah to former child star Mara Wilson.

So why call it "Risk!"? "It's scary when you're sharing your own stuff," says Allison, "because if people don't like it, it's not a character they don't like — it's you. But the paradox of that is that if you're honest, people almost always lean forward and start to become supportive of you. People sense authenticity and they'll come along for the ride."

Unlike NPR's "The Moth," which also holds local events, the "Risk!" lineup is set before it rolls into town, and Allison works with performers to perfect their stories for the audiences. He'll emcee a show Thursday night featuring local storytellers Shannon Cason, Lindsay Hoffman, Andrew Wright and Holly Hutton. We caught up with Allison as he was prepping for out-of-town shows and his weekly podcast from his digs in New York City.

QUESTION: How do you put together the guest list for your live shows?

ANSWER: I always put the call out on the podcast and tell people: "Hey, you know, we're coming to Detroit in a few months, so pitch us your stories." Some of them are hilarious, and some of them are really disturbing and horrifying, and some are really heartfelt and kind of beautiful. Any evening of "Risk!" always ends up being an emotional roller coaster. The whole idea is we want it to be the storytelling show where you really aren't censored, where you really can talk about anything that you've been through. I work with (the storytellers) a little bit like a therapist, poking at them, getting them deeper into how they really felt about this or that. Getting them to really flesh out cinematic scenes so we can really see what it is that they're remembering.

Q: How is "Risk!" different from the storytelling shows that start life on the radio, or doing television comedy?

A: There's so much freedom in podcasting. What makes "Risk!" stick out compared to other storytelling shows like "The Moth," for example, is that so many of them —because they're on NPR — have to keep things family-friendly, whereas "Risk!" really can be a place where you're completely uncensored. There's no holds barred. It has to be that way. There's something that's incredibly freeing about you being able to do creative work where you do not have a corporation that's green-lighting what you're doing. On "The State," we had an enormous amount of creative control now when we look back at it, but we still had to get votes of yes from several different highers-up at MTV. It's a real relief to be able to be creating something you believe in and not have anyone telling you that you can do this or that.

Q: Is running a weekly podcast stressful?

A: It depends on the time of year. I've been telling stories for a long time now, and I'm starting to draw some blanks. What else from my life would make a perfect story? I've told so many now that I'm a little worried that there are some areas of your life that you deliberately put off telling stories about because it might be a little complicated or tricky or you might want a therapist's help to go there. And so I did also get a therapist this year, I started going to therapy because I was like: "There are things even I have been avoiding." I'm usually the one doing it for other people.

Q: Is telling a true story tougher than doing fictional comedy?

A: A lot of people feel like comedy is especially risky, but I kind of feel that there is enough of an understanding in most audiences that not every joke is going to be the best joke that ever happened. Audiences are a lot more forgiving. Whereas if you're up onstage talking about your real stuff, it's a very psychological thing. You're walking this high wire. You don't want to be too self-deprecating and you don't want to be too self-involved. You have to find this middle place. One of the challenges of "Risk!" is to catch yourself when you start to embellish or twist things or say something that you're just saying for effect.

Q: Why do we love stories so much?

A: It's kind of the original art form. It goes back to being huddled around fires and primitive people. There is something so irreplaceable about any person spending 10 or 15 minutes or more really digging into an experience that they've had. It's quite different from what we're used to in the media. We're used to things being very edited, very short, lots of sound bites, people are talking at you rather than with you. So here is something that is different in a very old-fashioned way. It's just a human being, calming down for a bit, slowly taking you into their experience, and I think it's very grounding for us when we hear that. We find that very connecting and rather cathartic.